I bet you think you can answer that one right? Great! So let’s start by looking at what you want.
Indulge me for a moment here and take a pen and paper and write it down. Then read it back to yourself.
I’m going to ask you to think about what you have written down. How will you know when you have got it?

Let’s take an example – I want to be successful.

What’s wrong with that goal? Well I would suggest that it is not a great goal because there is nothing specific about it. There is no way of knowing if you have achieved it. There is nothing wrong with wanting to be successful, but without some clarity around the goal, there is no way you will ever be able to actually reach it.
So using this example, what do you mean by successful? Is it recognition you are looking for? Or is it monetary reward? How do you specify what success is to you?

Why is this important? Well, if you don’t define your goal clearly, you don’t know when you have reached it and the chances are you won’t feel satisfied and fulfilled in your quest to achieve the goal and possibly even give up along the way as the goal is too vague to know which way to go and where to focus.

By making your goal clear and specific you can focus your energies a lot easier on achieving it and are far more likely to reach it. And when you do reach you will be able to recognise your success because you were clear about what you wanted to achieve.

Another great example is “I want to earn enough money to be comfortable” – again nothing wrong with the intention here but let’s look at this a little closer. How will you know what comfortable is? What sort of lifestyle are you looking to support? It is all too easy to allow spending to exceed income, no matter how much you earn. So by looking at this intention, it raises the question of what lifestyle do I want, therefore how much do I need to support that? If you can start to put £’s figures on it it really helps focus your mind and resources to achieve that goal.

So I would invite you to re-examine your goals. Ask yourself the question “How will I know when I have achieved it?” – if you struggle to answer that question then the chances are the goal is not specific enough and needs some more work.

I love goals, they are great, they motivate and the give us focus. Improve your chances of success by keeping them really specific and focused.